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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30074238">Broken Down</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tremuloides/pseuds/tremuloides'>tremuloides</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Minecraft (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Canon Compliant, Gen, Jack Manifold Deserves Better, Jack Manifold-centric, Robots, Sam Nook-centric, but the canon moves SO FAST, cant tag, this is a mess, this used to be, uhh</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:14:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,545</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30074238</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tremuloides/pseuds/tremuloides</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After Tommy dies, no one thinks to tell Sam Nook.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>55</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Broken Down</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>No one stops by the Big Innit Hotel anymore. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tubbo lets the five rooms he paid for expire without ever going inside again. No one else buys any. If people do come by the hotel, they walk near, give it a sad look, and then walk away. Jack Manifold used to attempt to keep the hotel in good shape, whether out of guilt or out of greed, but one day he just stopped coming back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The weeds begin to grow again, crawling up the sides of the massive building. But inside, the tables and beds never grow dusty. The hotel is eerie with perfection. There’s a heavy air of abandonment around the place, one that seeps into the nearby Bee &amp; Boo, which shuts down only a few weeks later. The atmosphere reeks of happiness cut short, a child’s dreams that were taken away far too soon. The hotel isn’t even finished, and yet it sees sunset after sunset and no new progress. No new tenants. Nothing at all. As the Bloodvines creep up on the property, people stop even coming near.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>No one stops by the Big Innit Hotel anymore, but Sam Nook still does his job.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He does his best to clear the weeds. He waits patiently behind the reception desk for new customers. He finishes up an upgraded set of armor. He reminds himself that this is all for Tommy. When he gets back from the prison, he’ll be so happy to see what Sam Nook has done with the place. Tommy’s just running a little bit late.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sam Nook is an AI, so he doesn’t feel emotion. At least, not in the traditional sense. Regardless, the longer Tommy’s gone, the more noticeable this new sensation becomes. According to the dictionary, this is “missing someone”, but that doesn’t make sense, so Sam Nook writes it off as lack of purpose. To him this other explanation is obvious- and easier. Without Tommy, he doesn’t have a master. Sam Nook is a robot. He doesn’t care for the boy. It was just written into his programming that he was to help TommyInnit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tommy shouldn’t have been in the prison for this long. But it’s not in Sam Nook’s code to question, so he doesn’t ask. He builds more and more sets of armor. The foyer of the hotel runs out of room to hold them all. Still he creates. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sam Nook sends a message to Awesamdude: </span>
  <em>
    <span>MY GEARS ARE RUSTING. I NEED MAINTENANCE. SAM, I AM BREAKING DOWN. </span>
  </em>
  <span>When Sam doesn’t respond, Sam Nook continues to work. He scrubs at the furniture of the hotel, trying to take away dirt that isn’t there. The paint begins to chip and the wood wears away. Sam Nook isn’t strong enough to clear away the Bloodvines, so they begin to climb up on the sides of the hotel. Weeks and weeks pass. All the while he waits.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sam Nook waits and he waits and he waits. He waits for Sam to respond. He waits for new customers. He waits for someone to walk by again. He waits for Tommy to come back from prison. This game of waiting is so unbelievably and indescribably </span>
  <em>
    <span>human</span>
  </em>
  <span> that Sam Nook surprises even himself. This newfound humanity begs the question: what is more human than to die? </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Doing all this waiting takes a toll on him. Eventually, his batteries are too low to do anything at all. Dust begins to pile up. The carpets go unvacuumed. Cobwebs grow in the corners. The lights go out. Sam Nook wants to do </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span>, wants to fix everything somehow, but if he moves he will die. He parks behind the reception desk and goes into low-power mode. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In low-power mode, time passes slower. Days go by, or maybe they were weeks. For all Sam Nook knows, they could have been years. But finally someone remembers him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It’s late at night. Jack Manifold cuts through the Bloodvines, then through the regular vines and then through the cobwebs in an attempt to reach the door to the Big Innit Hotel. The door is sealed shut from inside, and he has to press his entire body weight against it to get it to open up. When it finally caves, multiple suits of armor crash across the wood floor and a cloud of dust blows up into his face. He’s sent into a coughing fit so loud that he barely notices another, much softer sound.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>This sound is a quiet whirring, and it’s accompanied by a dim blue light, one Jack has to strain his eyes to see. The hotel foyer is so dark that Jack has to remove his glasses. Even then it's still too dark, so he pulls out a lantern, but it doesn’t do much good. The air is too thick with dust and cobwebs. The light barely penetrates it. But Jack came here to find a robot, and that's what he'll do.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sam? Sam Nook?” Jack asks, walking forward and navigating the fallen armor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sam Nook’s head tilts up. Other than that, he doesn’t move. </span>
  <em>
    <span>HELLO, JACK MANIFOLD.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hi, Sam Nook. What the hell happened?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I AM WAITING FOR TOMMYINNIT TO RETURN, JACK MANIFOLD.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What… what do you mean?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I AM WAITING FOR TOMMYINNIT TO RETURN FROM PRISON.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh…” Jack says, “Sam Nook, Tommy… Tommy isn’t coming back.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>WHAT DO YOU MEAN, JACK MANIFOLD?</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sam, Tommy’s dead. He’s gone.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I SEE. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Suddenly, Sam Nook goes silent. The light in his eyes goes out, and his head drops.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sam? Sam, no.” Jack says. “Sam, wake up. Sam!” His voice echoes, almost as if the empty, dead hotel is mocking him. “Sam Nook!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As Jack throws himself over the reception desk in an attempt to reach Sam Nook, the lantern he brought falls onto the floor and cracks. Jack shakes the entire desk, which rattles Sam Nook. Jack barely gets to him before the robot’s head detaches completely. Jack catches the head right before it hits the floor. The weight of it shocks his arms, and just like that he begins to cry.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sitting on the floor, cradling a lifeless metal shell, it finally hits him. Tommy is gone. Tommy is well and truly gone, and there is nothing that he could possibly do about it. Jack is fully sobbing now, tears sliding off of Sam Nook’s head. His crying is loud, and it's ugly, and it's so cripplingly childlike that he curses himself under his breath.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He isn’t even sure what exactly he’s mourning.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Is it Tommy? Is it Sam Nook? Is it L’Manberg? God forbid, is it himself?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Since the beginning of Jack’s time on the server, there had been two constants. These constants were conflict and Tommy. So, of course, Jack assumed that the two constants were one and the same. He blamed Tommy for everything. From the downfall of L’Manberg to the Egg, it was all because of Tommy. To an extent Jack had been right. Maybe he'd taken it too far. Yes, Tommy had fucked up. But he didn’t deserve to pay for his mistakes with his life. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Really, he didn’t deserve to pay for them at all, or at least not in the way that everyone wanted him to. Hadn't they all been through enough? What had any of it been for?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dream was gone at last, and Tommy finally had the chance to be carefree and happy. Wasn’t that exactly what Jack wanted? A chance for things to be just like the good old days?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>More than anything, Jack wanted to go back to when L’Manberg had just begun. When he, Niki, Tommy, Tubbo, Fundy and Wilbur were allowed to just mess around. When they could just be kids, riding the high of being able to do what they wanted for the first time in their lives. When they were unburdened by the years of war. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Honestly, Jack should have expected this. As they say, hindsight is 20/20, and looking back, this shit ending seemed so very inevitable. Their group was bound to get too far ahead of themselves. Dream was bound to have the upper hand. But was it so wrong to want everyone to be happy again? To want one civil conversation between the L’Manberg originals? Instead, none of them spoke to each other at all. When anyone started to grow and change and get closure, it was all taken away. If the nuke plan had ended up succeeding, Jack was going to be the one to take it away. And for what? Mindless jealousy?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They just weren’t allowed to be happy.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The tears just kept coming.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Jack just missed his friends.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>All the crying has him choking and gasping for air. Instead, he inhales lungfuls of dust. The coughing gets worse. Clutching Sam Nook’s head like his life depends on it, Jack stumbles his way to the exit, leaving the cracked lantern behind. He trips over fallen suits of armor and skins his knees, but finally, he makes it outside. The cool night air shocks his skin in contrast to the hot tears that still remain on his cheeks. He takes a deep breath, raw sobs still catching in his throat, and looks up at the night sky.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Save for the stars, Jack is entirely alone.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I WROTE THIS BEFORE TOMMY GOT HIS MF REVIVAL ARC I PROMISE. WHY DO THEY ALWAYS SWITCH THINGS UP ON ME</p>
<p>anyway. jack manifold apologists rise up.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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